Sir Reg Empey was last night weighing up the prospects for a dramatic rescue plan put forward by Harland & Wolff to protect what is left of its business.

The North's Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment was presented yesterday with an assessment of the plan carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

It will determine whether the minister will throw a last lifeline to the famous Belfast shipyard.

If his department backs the plan, it will then be up to the Minister of Regional Development, Mr Peter Robinson - who also received a copy of the report - to sanction the re-designation and subsequent sell-off of 72 acres of land belonging to the yard necessary to finance the plan.

The plan proposes to shut all of the yard's welding and steel workshops where large-scale ship construction used to be undertaken and concentrate instead on ship repairs, outfitting, technical services and the launch of a £20 million sterling (€32 million) company producing equipment for offshore wind-farms and other alternative energy outlets. To fund the plan H&W proposes changes to the long-term lease of its 160-acre Albert Dock site.

The current lease stipulates that the land can only be used for shipbuilding, thus limiting its commercial value.

If the Regional Minister, who controls the Harbour Commissioners, approves the re-designation, the yard plans to sell off 72 acres of the site for around £25 million. First refusal is likely to go to H&W's parent company, Norwegian-based Fred Olsen Energy, which has got involved in the property market lately.

Sir Reg's major concern in evaluating the proposals will be to avoid a situation where the plan fails but the public land has already been given over to developers without any say by the North's devolved administration.

While he "deeply regretted" the 144 job losses announced by the ailing shipbuilder yesterday, Sir Reg said it was for H&W's directors to take "whatever action they see fit in response to current levels of work activity and market prospects".

"The PricewaterhouseCoopers review of the company's restructuring plan is nearing completion and I am keeping in contact with Peter Robinson, Minister of Regional Development, on the matter," the Enterprise Minister said in an official statement.

A spokesperson for the minister denied the plan had led to disagreements between the two men, saying the departments were "co-operating closely in the best interest of all parties concerned" on the issues presented.

While a rejection of the plan, which would inevitably lead to the yard's closure, would be a politically difficult decision to take, any decision would be based on a "realistic assessment of the situation". It was impossible to speculate on when the final decision would be taken, the spokesperson added, but "obviously, time is of the essence".

Mr Robinson said his department had been in "intensive discussions and correspondence" with the Department of Enterprise and the Belfast Harbour Commissioners with further meetings scheduled over the next few days.

"The work undertaken to date will enable progress to be made expeditiously following the review of the company's business plan. I am determined that the land in question will be used and developed in the best interests of the people of Northern Ireland and I want to give my personal commitment to the achievement of that objective," Mr Robinson said.

A spokesman for H&W said he was aware the two ministers were currently studying both the rescue plan and the consultants' assessment of it. "We know they are working on it. They are dealing with all the issues they need to be dealing with and we would not want to interfere with that process. We have not been given any indication of a timescale," he added.